Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on what evidential basis the cervical screening interval was changed from three to five years; and whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of that interval on rates of early cancer detection.

The UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation to change the cervical screening intervals from three to five years for women aged 25 to 49 years old was made in 2019. The evidence and consultation responses supporting the recommendation can be found at the following link:

https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/cervical-cancer/

The decision to make the changes was based on what is best for individuals. The more accurate human papillomavirus test requires less frequent screening, and changing the frequency eliminates the unnecessary over screening of the population.

The IT system supporting the national cervical screening programme was updated in July 2024, and can now enable the changes that were recommended.

A full impact assessment and equality impact assessment were considered before the changes were agreed by the Government. We will publish these shortly.